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Seasons!

People say that there are no seasons in Southern California. I beg to differ! These pictures are of the same street and tree in my neighborhood and as you can clearly see...there are FALL colors and SPRING flowers.

Finally!

So, it has been a loooong time since I have put anything on here. A reflection of how crazy this semester has been so far. It's not so much that I have a ton more work, there is just less time to do the work that I now have. Anyway, over all, I have really enjoyed student teaching. Way more than I ever thought I would.

I was reading C.S. Lewis' book, Perelandra, right before I started student teaching and I read something in there that almost perfectly described how I felt about student teaching at the time. It says, "The thing still seemed impossible. But gradually something happened to him which had happened to him only twice before in his life. It had happened once while he was trying to make up his mind to do a very dangerous job in the last war. It had happened again while he was screwing his resolution to go and see a certain man in London and make to him an excessively embarrassing confession which justice demanded. In both cases the thing had seemed a sheer impossibilty: he had not thought but known that, being what he was, he was psychologically incapable of doing it; and then, without any apparent movement of the will, as objective and unemotional as the reading on a dial, there had arisen before him, with perfect certitude, the knowledge 'about this time tomorrow you will have done the impossible.' The same thing happened now. His fear, his shame, his love, all his arguments, were not altered in the least. The thing was neither more nor less dreadful than it had been before. The only difference was that he knew - almost as a historical proposition - that it was going to be done. He might beg, weep, or rebel - might curse or adore - sing like a martyr or blaspheme like a devil. It made not the slightest difference. The thing was going to be done. There was going to arrive, in the course of time, a moment at which he would have done it. The future act stood there, fixed and unaltered as if he had already performed it. It was a mere irrelevant detail that it happened to occupy the postition we call future instead of that which we call past. The whole struggle was over, and yet there seemed to have been no moment of victory...No sooner had he discovered that he would certainly try to kill the Un-man to-morrow than the doing of it appeared to him a smaller matter than he had supposed."

I'm starting to realize that I think it's kind of impossible to become very godly if we are never willing to get out of our comfort zones. One of my biggest struggles in life has been the fear of man, and the thought of having to get up and teach in front of a group of strangers, another teacher, and, once a week, a supervisor, absolutely terrified me. But I thought, somehow, I will most likely get through it. And now there is only a week left of my first assignment and it wasn't that bad at all. God truly helped me get through it and even greatly enjoy it! I had a wonderful teacher to learn from and a great class and now I am really sad to leave! The kids in the class are really sweet and some of them are so hilarious. There is this one kid who kind of reminds me of a little Taylor Hicks. Anyway, we kind of joke around sometimes and it's gotten to the point where he's a bit sassy with me. In class on Friday I can't remember what he said to me, but I was like, "Excuse me?" And he said, "What? You make fun of me, so now I'm getting back at you." Then I told him that you don't get to get back at the teacher. That's the privilege of being the teacher. Anyway, it was kind of funny, but I'm a bit worried that I'm not strict enough. I really try, I think it's kind of hard because I feel too young to be a teacher and the kids think I look too young to be a teacher also! Oh well! Now I'll see how first grade goes.

All in all, God has just been showing me how faithful and gracious He is, even when I am so unfaithful. I am so thankful that I have hope in Him!

Christmas Decorating Day!

Christmas decorating day. It used to be the first Saturday in December, but in recent years it has moved up to the day after Thanksgiving. As the turkey utters its last gobble, the Christmas tree is pulled out of the garage by my dad and sister. Actually, that makes it sound too easy. In fact, it’s a great struggle to get the tree down from the rafters. Yes, I said down from the rafters. We now have a fake tree. No more sweet-smelling piney goodness. But at least we have a perfect looking tree with no huge gaps or diminishing pine needles. Although a little imperfection can be nice.
My mom works pretty hard on Christmas decorating day. She makes sure that every single crevice of the house is graced with some sort of Christmas decoration. Last year, she had me take pictures of every room so that she could remember where everything was placed. Throughout the year, she would ask me, “You still have those Christmas pictures, right?” “You didn’t delete my Christmas pictures did you?” Somehow, I managed to keep those pictures on the camera all year, but I never actually transferred them onto a computer. Sadly enough, a few months back we lost the camera. Poor mom.
My mom is so attached to the Christmas decorations, that somehow there are always a couple of items that get left up all year. One of our Christmas ornaments hangs from a light in our downstairs bathroom perpetually. A few years back we made some little snowmen out of socks and rice. One of the snowmen got overstuffed and has been dubbed “Fatty.” My mom has tried to make Fatty one of her year round decorations, but Emily and I have kept this desire at bay. It’s taking things a little too far to have a snowman out all year.
Every family member takes part in decorating the house. My dad meticulously puts on the Christmas tree lights making sure that every branch is covered. Every year, half of the Christmas lights aren’t working so we made a little trip to Michael’s. Emily and I are in charge of putting the garland on the banisters, putting ornaments on the tree, and setting up the little nativity scene figures that my Grandma Shaw painted. One of the donkeys lost an ear, so this year Emily and I named him Malchus. I'm pretty sure we ripped that name off the Archers who had a wooden giraffe with a missing ear...who is now owned by Melissa Johnson and all the girls over at that apartment. Oh well.
We managed to finish the Christmas decorations a bit early this year, around 6:00 p.m. which is pretty amazing considering how decked out the house is. By the time we were finished, Emily had found this taped-off-T.V. Christmas movie called The Christmas Toy that was done by Jim Henson. We hadn’t seen it since we were little and I remember really loving it. I don’t remember being scared of the characters as a kid, but some of them really creep me out now. Since we were working all day we went out to eat at Coco’s where we were seated near some ladies who looked as if they were straight out of the early eighties. As my dad put it, their hair was about 10 feet tall. I saw one man walk by and do a double take. We finished up the night by watching a Christmas movie. Yay! The Christmas season has started!

Thanksgiving

So I know that a lot of people think that it is cheesy to go around the table after Thanksgiving dinner and have each family member say what they are thankful for, but this happens to be my favorite part of Thanksgiving. When I was younger, I actually thought that this was something only my family did. Imagine that. Anyway...I am always so encouraged by hearing what each of my family memebers thanks God for. It reminds me just how much God has given me and how ridiculous it is for me to complain about anything! I especially like hearing what my aunt, uncle, and cousin have to say, because there is only so much that you can tell about a person if you only see them a few times a month. It's been exciting to see how God has been working in their immediate family this year. Practially each one of us mentioned how God's grace in our lives is so amazing. This year, besides how thankful I am that God has saved me, I was hit with how thankful I am for my family. It's a good reflection of how God loves us, to look at our own family's love for us. My parents and sister love me unconditionally even when I don't understand why, and they see everything about me. What's even more amazing is that God knows us completely, even better then we know ourselves, and He still has chosen to love and save us.
It was fun too to do our yearly things. Emily and Jeremy and I went and played frisbee in the park. On the first throw, Emily chucked it right into someone's backyard, so Jeremy had to hop over and get it. We actually couldn't find our frisbee earlier, so we had to go out and buy one, and by the time we got to the park, we only had about 15 minutes to play...but it was still fun. Than later on we played Catchphrase. We get extremely loud playing Catchphrase...my poor Grandma couldn't hear half of what we were saying because we were screaming. It's always the "kids" against the adults, even though we're outnumbered 3 to 5, but we still managed to win. And then we played the cardgame "Hand and Foot," which without fail my mom calls "An Arm and a Leg." Anyway, I was thankful for another good Thanksgiving!

Living at Home

Now that I live at home again, one fact has been confirmed. My parents are funny. I always knew they had funny quirks, but I guess that it has become more obvious too me in recent years. Tonight, at the dinner table, we were eating hot dogs. Neither my mom nor my dad like ketchup on their hot dogs. Just mustard and onions. Both of them. They think it's strange that I like ketchup on my hot dog. Maybe it's just me, but I thought that was pretty normal.
My mom messes up idioms like no one else. She invented a new one last night while we were eating at BJ's. She was telling us about a lady she works with that "swears like a fish." My dad and I were cracking up, but somehow we finally managed to tell her that it is "swears like a sailor." She also says, "When it rains, it snows", "like two ships bumping in the night", and "he was born with a silver tooth in his mouth." There are more where those came from, but these are her some of her classics.
This is kind of a random thought, but I was just thinking that it is interesting how most families keep their weight scale thingy's in their bathroom. I assume this is for privacy's sake in not wanting anyone to find out their weight. But really, I've never understood the point of that either. I mean, pretty much you look like what you weigh. It's not a huge mystery. I wonder what it would be like if someone put their scale in the kitchen. The whole family could line up and weigh in before Thanksgiving dinner. "Mmmm...sorry Aunt May, it looks like you won't be getting any stuffing this year." Hmm...maybe that's why this isn't a popular trend.

So today, I finally became convinced that it is definitely worth it to spend money on a good haircut. I went to Supercuts today because I really didn't want to spend a lot of money on just a trim. Well the girl I got, who looked to be about 12 years old, (first tip off right there) doesn't know the meaning of "just a trim" and long layers. She butchered my hair and I am in no way exaggerating. Next time I will take a better look in the mirror before paying such a person a tip. I never thought I would be the kind of person to cry over a haircut, in fact I laughed at people who did, but I can laugh no more. My mom convinced me to go to a nice salon right away and get it fixed. I really didn't believe that anyone could do anything with it, but those a bit more pricey salon people really know what they're doing. I learned my lesson.

The Extra Hour

I have just got to say, I am thankful for daylight savings time! My neighbors next door are a young couple that are apparently obsessed with Halloween. They created a musicians graveyard out front. Come on over if you want to pay your respects to Johnny Cash, Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Ringo, and a few others. There's also a lovely little headstone that says, "U must die." Hm... Anyway, they are having a massive Halloween party tonight and I don't think I will ever fall asleep. So ya, I'm thankful for that extra hour. It's kinda funny though, that extra hour. I don't think I know a single person who actually takes advantage of it. If anything, it seems that people stay up later than they normally would.
I remember when I used to dress up for Halloween...it was fun, but now I really like what my Bible study does. We have a Reformation day party. This year it was really cool because John Glass came and talked about John Calvin and showed us pictures of Geneva. It was encouraging remembering what happened long ago on what is now Halloween. It's a great reminder of men who stood firm for the truth, God's Word and His glory, no matter what opposition they faced. It was very convicting to me, as lately I have easily been caught up in school (and Lost, pathetic as it may sound) and other things...and not in what really matters most. Jesus said in Luke 21:34, "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with...cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly." It's really easy to get caught up in the "cares of this life" but I want to focus on Jesus instead.
Hm...it sounds like the techno music is starting up...maybe I should try and fall asleep fast before it gets louder.

Addicting

So I held strong for two whole years. My parents, my sister, and even occasionaly her friend Chloa, begged me to watch it. But I always said no. I did not want to get sucked in and neglect my homework forever. But summer's with nothing to do will lead you to do crazy things. I finally caved in and watched a few episodes of Lost. That's all it took. There was no turning back. I still have two third's of the second season to go, and then life can finally return back to normal. One episode a week. Seriously, even my dreams are about Lost. I think that might be a sign that things are going a bit too far...

A little update...

Wow, so it has been a really long time since I last posted. I kind of forgot my username, and I really didn't try that hard to remember it, but I finally put forth some effort, and here I am. Anyway, life is going good. I started the credentialing program at Master's. Actually I'm well into the program, and it really is not that difficult. I've come to the realization that horror stories (about anything) are rarely true. Well, maybe not about anything. But at least they aren't true about the credentialing program. Of course that may partly be because I don't have a 20 hour a week job anymore.
The really exciting surprise about this semester is that I am still able to go to SCV Bible study. My class that was supposed to last until 9:00 p.m. actually gets out around 7:30 p.m. because we all voted on skipping the hour dinner break. So I get to Bible study right around the time they're doing prayer requests. It worked out great. God is good and faithful!

Ice Blocking

I want to take a moment to possibly introduce to some of you a wonderful little thing called ice blocking. It's the best cheap fun next to watermellon football. Actually, it may be the best. The only cost is that of a mere 2 to 4 dollars for a few iceblocks. Then all you have to do is find a good hill. Just watch out for the bottom. It kinda hurts if you flip off and the ice block lands on your ankle. Overall, It's a great way to spend the last weekend with your wing.

A New Blog

Well, I thought since I am going to be graduating from Master's soon, (even though I'll technically still be there credentialing) communication with those who are leaving will be minimal. So, this is my attempt to keep in touch with those I don't see anymore. Hopefully I will keep up with it somewhat faithfully, but it might be a bit difficult next year when classes start up again. With that said, more posting to come.